VOLKSWAGEN driver Giniel de Villiers won the third stage of the Dakar Rally as the German manufacturer continued its dominance of the annual endurance event.

Colin McRae scored his first podium finish on the Dakar Rally today to put his speeding penalty to the back of his mind.

IRAQ'S new Governing Council was warned about the possibility of a terror attack in Baghdad just days before Tuesday's truck bombing ripped through the United Nations headquarters.

A suicide attacker rammed a truck packed with explosives through the gates of a Russian military hospital near Chechnya, destroying the building and killing at least 27 people, authorities said. One official put the death toll at 35.